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Dance Marathon: Best of Digital Media

June 26, 2017 | By bcox | Network Post

Digital media is one of the best methods to bring the mission of Miracle Network Dance Marathon to life. It allows people to see the impact that their participation and/or donations make in a unique and exciting way. Digital media can highlight a campaign, explain your event, or tell a story. Digital Media includes (but is not limited to) text, audio, videos, graphics, social media posts or other ways technology is used to communicate to participants, donors, and your community.

Below are some of examples of digital media from a number of the Dance Marathon programs that applied for the Best Digital Media award, which will be presented at the 2017 Dance Marathon Leadership Conference in July.

Auburn University:

In addition to an updated website and a new blog, Auburn University Dance Marathon utilized a wide variety of digital media to help them reach their $500,000 fundraising goal.

AUDM released their “Remember Why” campaign video to set the tone for the year, connecting students back to the kids and the hospital. This video touched on the sensitive and vulnerable side of their program and got participants reflecting on why they are For The Kids. In shaping this as a year-round campaign, AUDM had a “Remember Why” graphic for their staff and dancers to share and included #RememberWhy on the majority of their posts throughout the year.

AUDM also created a Morale Lip Dub video, a Dance Marathon event recap video, a number of campaign promotional graphics; participated in live interviews on several local news stations; had articles published in The Plainsmen and Hercampus.com; and had a commercial shown on Eagle Eye TV, Auburn’s student news outlet.

President Sydney Nicholas and Vice President of PR Tiffany Thompson for WTVM News Station in Columbus, GA.

Ball State University:

BSU Dance Marathon created their “Live Moves Pretty Fast” video to remind their dancers to focus on their Miracle families and continue to do everything they can For The Kids at their local hospital. The creator of the video, Matthew Hood, said “I wanted to create a video that would continue to inspire all DM’s across the nation to continue fighting, to continue hoping, to continue living life. Life moves pretty fast, but in the Dance Marathon world, we can make life seem a little bit slower for our kids”.

Bowling Green State University:

According to Dance Marathon at BGSU, “The inspiration behind this video was to highlight how Dance Marathon has changed the lives of our participants. Dance Marathon is and always has been about and for the kids. But the amazing thing is, while we are trying to change their lives, they end up changing ours. This was an initiative to show potential participants that this is more than just a 24-hour event but a life-changing organization.”

Elon University:

Elonthon created a new mission for their digital media this year–to spread the “why.” They wanted students on their campus to understand how important their cause is and encourage them to see that participating in their 24-hour event is the least they can do for the kids in their community. Their new strategy focused on making sure that all graphics and videos shared on social media were visually appealing, consistent with their brand, and always included a call to action.

Because of you miracles were made. To each and every donor, dancer, advisor, committee member, and miracle family that helped us reach $351,554.17 this year – Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. One day we will dance in celebration, until then we will dance for a cure.

Florida Atlantic University:

As a part of their fundraising push day this year, OwlThon at Florida Atlantic University hosted a date auction to contribute to their fundraising. The creative video they created to promote the event reached over 15,000 people and helped them raise $5,000 toward the $30,000 they raised during their 24-hour fundraising push.

Dear ladies, OwlThon is super excited to announce our first ever Date Auction! Come out and bid on our very FTK "bachelor's in paradise" February 8th from 8-11PM! *no copyright infringement intended*

Florida State University:

Dance Marathon at FSU set a goal to tell a story at their Dance Marathon event and put a meaning behind their largest in-event fundraiser, the miracle gong. The miracle gong was “the heartbeat” of their marathon. Every time a participant raised $100 at the marathon, they were able to hit the miracle gong so the families at Shands could hear that all of the dancers were one heartbeat, one movement, for one cause. Dance Marathon at FSU created a video that was shown at the opening ceremonies for both 20-hour shifts.

Fontbonne University:

In their first-year as a program, Fontbonne University Miracle Network Dance Marathon hosted an “Ignition Week” to raise awareness for their first Dance Marathon event that weekend, fundraise, and get students excited to participate. To help promote this week, they created a humourous “Billy on the Street”-style video that was shared on social media, posted on the Center of Leadership and Community Engagement’s YouTube page, and was directly e-mailed to all students before they left for spring break.

Georgia College:

Georgia College Miracle wanted to address the misconception’s that students may have about a “twelve-hour dance event,” and worked to “create a unified community of students who shared the commonality of wanting to make a difference by bettering the lives of present and future generations.” They created this video to announce their 2017 fundraising goal of $175,000 and place more of an emphasis on their year-round efforts for their local hospital.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis:

Jagathon at IUPUI wanted to educate the students at their Dance Marathon about the unique fact that their local hospital is within walking distance from their campus. They created a video for their Opening Ceremonies that showed Miracle Kids bringing a torch, representing the hope that their hospital creates for families, from the front of the hospital to their Dance Marathon venue. After the video played, Jagathon executive board members ran the torch through the venue doors and kicked off their event.

Oklahoma State University:

After rebranding their organization during the 2015-2016 academic year, CowboyThon wanted to focus on maintaining a consistent and recognizable visual identity for their organization. They utilized one font and simple, clean graphics to present CowboyThon in a professional light, allowing potential and current donors, dancers and hospital staff to regard CowboyThon in a professional manner. At the same time, they hoped that the bright colors and simple vector images would represent their playful, fun and bright mission for the kids.

St. Ambrose University:

To celebrate their 5th year anniversary, St. Ambrose University Dance Marathon created a video to highlight their theme for the year, “Dancing Together, Fighting Forever” and celebrate their history as an organization.

They also created an event recap video to remind dancers of their incredible accomplishments and the memories made during their 2017 event and to give donors, volunteers, incoming students, current students, alumni, and sponsors a look into what Dance Marathon at SAU is all about.

The Ohio State University:

BuckeyeThon created a “thank you” video “to show donors and participants the incredible things they are supporting when they give of their time, talent, and treasure to BuckeyeThon.” Their goal was to make sure that donors, team members, sponsors, and supporters feel ownership over their cause and their fundraising total.

University of Central Florida:

Knight-Thon at UCF created a video to announce their 2017 theme, “Our Promise,” right before they announced their goal to raise $1.2 million for their local hospital. They chose this theme because they wanted every participant to think about the promise they could make this year. “Promises ranged from growing more in knowledge for the cause to never forgetting why we are for the kids. This video was something that could be shared throughout the year to remind our dancers, participants, donors, and hospitals that we were determined to keep our promise of raising 1.2 million for Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.”

This year, OUR PROMISE is to raise $1.2 MILLION DOLLARS for our hospitals and for our kids. Knight-Thon at the University of Central Florida is so excited for April 1st and an amazing year of making miracles happen! #KTPromise

University of Central Oklahoma:

In BronchoThon’s first year on campus at Central Oklahoma, they wanted to utilize digital media to explain to their campus what a Dance Marathon is, what BronchoThon’s goals were, and why they should get involved.

Haven't registered for BronchoThon yet? Well it's not too late!! Join our family today and become a miracle maker! #ftk

As they were a new program, they also had to educate their dancers on how to use Donor Drive to create their fundraising pages and solicit donations. They created a great “how to” video to give students a visual guide.

University of Findlay:

Knowing that they needed to unite their entire campus in order to help them achieve their fundraising goals, University of Findlay Dance Marathon hosted their first IMDM (interest meeting for Dance Marathon or “I AM DANCE MARATHON”) event. They had 100 prospective dancers gathered in a lecture hall, where they revealed their 2016 theme with a video that was also simultaneously shared on their social media platforms.

University of Florida:

Dance Marathon at the University of Florida made the video they share at the end of their DM event a little differently this year. They wanted to include video clips from throughout the entire year, rather than just from the DM event, in order to show the progress they had made as an organization throughout the year.

“This video tightly pulled together our campaign of the year, Together We Can. It exemplified the togetherness we, as a Dance Marathon family and a University of Florida community, were able to accomplish in the short span of a year. It proved the ability of a group of young people, both determined and passionate, to be able to fight for a worthy and phenomenal cause. Individually, we are unique and hungry for change, together we are unstoppable. Together, we sought out to make a difference, and a year later, Together We Did. And we believe that or Closing Ceremonies video encompasses this campaign, this year, and this organization perfectly.”

University of Oklahoma:

This past year, Soonerthon at the University of Oklahoma launched their “One Million Reasons Why” campaign with a video to call on the whole campus and surrounding areas to reflect on the many reasons they are passionate about the cause. They hoped that the video would not only have an emotional draw, but would also be seen as a call to action in helping them reach their goal.

University Of Pittsburgh:

Pitt Dance Marathon recognized that “everyone involved in the dance marathon movement dances for a different reason. The one thing we all have in common is that we all dance for the kids.” They wanted to create a video to tell individual reasons to dance while making the viewers think about their reason for dancing and get them motivated in the last few weeks before their Dance Marathon event. Their “Why We Dance” video was shared on social media and was also played in various buildings around campus, including fifteen residence halls

Pitt Dance Marathon also created a video “to show people that it doesn’t matter where on campus you hang out or what your typical day is like…who you are or what you do on campus, you can come to PDM. Showing different people from around campus coming together in one location and having a fun time helped us to highlight that PDM is all about bringing people together for one day, for one cause.”

How will you be spending your Saturday? In Club Hillman or on the dance floor? Go to pdm.pitt.edu to learn more.

University of South Carolina:

USC Dance Marathon utilized a large variety of digital media assets throughout the year to inspire their campus, educate the community, and share resources with their dancers. They started the year with their 2017 fundraising goal reveal video:

They also announced their campaign for the year, “Limitless,” where they challenged their community to think beyond what they thought was possible individually and as a group.

For their “Day of Miracles” campaign, where they attempted to raise $75,000 in 24 hours, USC Dance Marathon created graphics that had a consistent look and feel in order to capture attention and stand out from their other content.

Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 300 colleges and universities across North America that fundraise for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since its inception in 1991, Miracle Network Dance Marathon has raised more than $180 million–ensuring that no child or family fights pediatric illness or injury alone.